We're All Mad Here
by Tara Walden
Summary: KLU- A new hero with an unfortunately familiar name is given membership in the JL. Who would ever talk to a hero who shares a name with a supervillain? Who indeed.
1. Chapter 1: Blank Puzzles

As she sits at the small circular table, staring at a seek-a-word puzzle but not really focusing on actually working on it, she reflects back on today's rather discouraging events. The same events that have led her to seek refuge here, in the break room. The same events that have made her start to regret having joined the League.

A whole day has passed and still no one has even once made the slightest attempt to come talk to her… Except, of course, to ask her why she's Mad Hatter. Is it really her fault that her superhero name is the same as one of Batman's villain's? She hadn't even heard of 'Mad Hatter' the supervillain until Batman had pointed it out to her.

She wants to go crawl under a rock.

She's stubborn, though. She isn't about to allow something as minor as a shared name make her change her own. The same name she had been operating under since she first began her extraordinary escapades of daring do.

'Let the villain change his name. From what Batman told me, I've had the name longer. Besides,' she reasons with herself, 'nothing else really works with my powers. There's nothing else I could even choose…'

"You're the new hero, right?" comes a soft, monotonous voice, tearing her from her thoughts.

She looks up from the seek-a-word puzzle that's as blank as the vacant stare she had been directing at it for the last hour.

Sitting across the table from her is a man wearing a fedora, blue trench coat, and yellow dress shirt that complemented the blue slacks and vest. His attire is not the most interesting feature about him, though. No. That distinction would have to be given to his face… Or more accurately, lack thereof.

"Hello…?" she says, the greeting coming off as more of a question than what it was intended to be. 'When'd he get here?' she thinks as she looks around at the nearly empty break room of the Watchtower.

The man leans back in his chair, "Hello," he replies, seemingly unfazed. He removes his laptop from under his arm and places it on the table the two of them would apparently now be sharing. After an awkward silence, in which the only noise is the _click click click_ of keys being pressed on the strange man's laptop, Hatter thinks it safe to return to her yet to be started puzzle.

She had thought wrong.

"So, you are the new hero, right?" he repeats.

"Oh… Sorry. I thought you were busy…"

"My fingers are, but that has nothing to do with my hearing."

"Sorry…"

"No reason," he responds, not looking up from his laptop.

"What?" she asks, not following his line of thought.

He finally looks up at her— at least she thinks he is; the no face thing does make that difficult to know for sure.

"No reason to be sorry."

"Oh…"

"So will you answer the question?"

"Oh! Yes. I suppose I am the new hero."

"Mad Hatter, yes?" he says, returning to whatever he is working on with the laptop.

Hatter sighs, dreading what she believes to be coming next. "Yes. That's my name."

"Huhm. There's a supervillain named Mad Hatter, you know."

Yet another sigh, "So I've been told."

"Why name yourself Hatter, then?"

"_He_ named _himself_ Hatter long after _I_ had named _myself_ Hatter. So he shares _MY_ name not the other way around," she replies curtly, clearly annoyed.

Without looking up, he responds, "I meant why did you name yourself that? What are your powers?"

"I am so sorry," she says, immediately feeling guilty. It wasn't his fault that today was horrible. "It's just—"

"Everyone's ignored you or talked about you when they thought you weren't looking?"

"Yeah… But… How would you know that?"

"I am the Question. I know a lot more than anyone wants me to. Even the government."

"So… I guess you must know a lot then."

"Too much for my own good, some might say," he replies as he looks around with a true sense of paranoia before settling his gaze (possibly) back on her. She really isn't sure, but she supposes he does because for a moment he seems to kind of relax. "You must be tired by now. Get some rest."

"What time is it?" she asks, her eyebrows furrowing.

He glances at the clock on his laptop before returning his attention to her. "Supposedly 11:36 PM."

"11:36? Is it really that late?"

"Unless the government has a temporal displacement device, which I suspect that they do, yes it is."

"I had no idea it was so late," she mutters. "This whole no sunset up here in space deal is really messing up my internal clock."

"Happens to everyone," he says, once more typing furiously on his laptop. "Eventually you'll get used to it."

'If I'm even here that long…' she thinks before forcing herself from such pessimistic thoughts. She looks at the faceless man.

"Thanks," she smiles, closing her puzzle book and standing. Just as she is about to walk off, Question feels compelled to say something to her.

"Nice to meet you," he somewhat mumbles.

Her smile widens at his remark. So simple, but it showed that at least one person is happy that she is here on this monolithic tribute to what might have previously been thought of as science fiction.

"Nice to meet you, too."

As she walks off, Question returns to his research. Unfortunately his task of diligently trying to find a link between the government missiles program and Oprah is interrupted when two people sit down at _his_ table. And it is _his_ table, he just hadn't minded the new kid sitting there.

"Thou hast spoken to the new hero?" asks a knight in shiny golden chainmail. But not just any shiny golden chainmail, Question's mind calls up the random fact. It's _magic_ golden chainmail.

"Yes," he responds absently, "suppose I have."

"What was she like?" questions the other man with a thick Southern twang. This man is a cowboy with a cowboy hat and a red bandana covering the lower portion of his face.

"Upset," Question states in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"What hast upset her?"

Question finally looks up, clearly irked despite his lack of face, "Am I being interrogated?"

"Just' tell us wha's upset tha lil lady."

"Well, Vigilante," begins Question, "suppose I would be upset, too, if no one talked to me. Oh wait… No I wouldn't."

"Why hast no one spoken with her? We hath just returned from a mission and only caught a glimpse of her, but I could spy naught wrong with her."

"What?" Question asks, addressing Vigilante. Truthfully, had he been paying the slightest bit of attention as the knight talked, he would have known what he'd said. But security codes on high level governmental files don't crack themselves and he had needed to focus on that.

"In other words," Vig says, "Sir Justin hur thought she was hot."

"Why would she be hot?" the knight asks, entirely confused. "Hast the air machine once more set up its rest that it shalt not work?"

Vigilante smacks himself in the forehead, nearly knocking his cowboy hat off. Justin had been here in the present day forever, but he still didn't have a clue when it came to modern language, which had created many an awkward situation. Too many for Vig's liking.

"Sir Justin, 'hot' has two meanin's nowadays. The way I was usin' it meant you thought she was 'attractive'."

"Then why not simply say that at the first?" Justin he questions before turning back to Question once more. "Yes… Then I suppose she was rather… 'hot'."

"Rather hot? Please!" exclaims Vig turning to the faceless man. "I thought his eyes was gonna fall out of his skull."

"I wast not ogling!"

"Nope. I'll give you that. You was just flat out starin'."

"You lie! Twas you who could not take thine eyes from her!"

"You callin me a liar?" yells Vig, standing up from his seat.

Question rolls his non-visible eyes. Why did this always happen with these two?

Justin jumps to his feet as well, "What is it thou hast said? 'If the boot doth fit, wear it'."

"If the shoe fits, wear it," Question corrects. "Besides, you were both staring at her."

"Well," Justin sighs, reseating himself. "I noticed it not if I were."

"Funny thang is," starts Vig, "ain't nothin' incredible bout 'er. Jus' ord'nary. 'speshly compared ta Wonder Woman, Vixen, Fire, an' all them other pretty ladies."

"Nay," the knight disagrees, shaking his head. "Far from it. She is beautiful in her own rite. Were ye ignorant of with what grace she walked. With what pride she carried herself?"

"Tha's not exac'ly what I's payin' attention to, Sir Justin," Vig smirks behind his bandana.

Justin shakes his head once more, this time with a mix of disbelief and disdain. He can't help but wonder at times why he is friends with Vigilante. "Ye besmirch thine order."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Vig chuckles before looking to the trench-coated detective once more. "So whatcha thank of 'er? We figur', you give 'er tha thumbs up, she mus' be okay."

At this, Q seems to start muttering more to himself than attempting to answer Vig's question. "Seemed alright… Tired, but alright… Not everything as appears, though… Need more information…" he mutters as he closes his laptop, puts it in his satchel, and walks off. As he does, he mumbles, "Trash outside doors tomorrow… Investigate further…"

Justin and Vig watch as he leaves the room and then exchange puzzled and slightly disturbed looks.

* * *

**Okay... I'm trying to write in a different style for once. I haven't written in third person omniscient for a long time and I'm kind of out of touch.**  
**If no one likes it in this format because they think it doesn't work, I may try to switch it over to first person, but that would mean swapping POV every now and again, like that little segment with Q.**

**Anyway, as always, I'd love to know what everyone thinks. It really does help me as a writer to get constructive criticism and build my skills from it.**

**Well, I hope everyone likes this chapter. I've been wanting to write a JLU story for a while and I stumbled across this when cleaning out my closet.**  
**(Which was very scary by the way. I almost got eaten by something. O_O) This story was originally from several years ago (sixth or seventh grade I think) and I simply reworked it to better match my current writing level.**

**Like I said, hope everyone enjoyed, constructive criticism is most welcome.**

**~Kanae~**


	2. Chapter 2: Autographs

**Okay, I am SO SORRY that I just kinda disappeared for about a month there. I was grounded and couldn't get on the computer.**  
**Now, this chapter is going to be REALLY short, but I just didn't want you guys thinking I died or anything. Besides, I felt like updating.**

**The next chapter will be up either later on tonight or tomorrow.**

* * *

Hatter had just finished drying off from a nice warm shower and gotten dressed for bed when she decided to check her e-mail.

She walks over to a built into the wall shelf, picks up the laptop and carries it over to her bed. This done, she promptly lifts the top and turns it on as she ties her soaking wet hair back into a ponytail. As she waits for it to boot up, she begins humming to herself a song that sounded suspiciously like her favorite Skillet song.

She continues to do so as the computer finally loads up and she clicks the e-mail icon. There is only one new message and it is from Gaelyn, her younger brother.

"Probably checking up on me to see how the whole 'hero' thing is going. Nosey," she mumbles, smiling to herself. She would never admit it, to anyone, but she really did like the fact that he had taken the time to send her an e-mail. The one thing that he would never admit is that he was actually worried about her.

'Hey… Hatter,' it began. He is one of the few people after all to know her other half's identity. 'Just wanted to check up on you. Make sure you weren't dead yet or anything. (If you are, do I get your room? It is a lot bigger than mine.) But then again, you're reading this, so you're obviously alive and it doesn't matter… Have you made friends with anyone yet?

Well, if you did, you have to tell me about them.

Gaelyn

PS-If you happen to run into Flash or Superman, could you get me their autographs? Please please please please please?'

Hatter couldn't help but shake her head, a smile spreading across her face. She doesn't answer, but saves her response for tomorrow when there might be more to tell. She quickly shuts down the computer, puts it back in its place on the bookshelf and collapses onto her bed. She doesn't even get the chance to turn her lamp off before she is sound asleep, dreaming of home.

* * *

**I have two contests for my readers:**

_**CONTEST 1:  
Who can guess what her favorite Skillet song is?  
(The first correct guess will get the character of the guesser a cameo.)**_

**_CONTEST 2:  
Who can guess which country Hatter is from?  
(The first correct guess will also get the character of the guesser a cameo.)_**

**__**

Well, there you go. This is the first time I've done this , but it's a little thank you for being awesome and not giving up on my non-updating-ness.

Thanks for reading and reviews are most welcome.

**_~Kanae~_**


	3. Chapter 3: Reflections

**This chapter's slightly longer, but still kinda short. **  
**Oh, well. I wanted to try my best to update tonight.**

**By the way, contest two has already been won by newsiesgirllaces. CONGRATS!**  
**Her character will be appearing very soon.**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

"So, shall we approach her this day?"

Vigilante almost jumps out of his skin. He spins around to see Sir Justin standing right beside his room's door. He didn't know how long the knight had been standin' there, but he'd obviously been waiting for him. Of course, that wasn't really anything unusual. Justin always waited for him outside the door when they had monitor duty.

"Sir Justin, do you know what happens to somebody if they get scared half ta death twice?"

Justin's brow furrows in bafflement before he asks, "What?"

"They punch whoever keeps startlin' the daylights out of 'em."

"Wast that meant to be a 'joke'? For t'was not funny."

Vig sighs before shaking his head and giving up. He begins to walk down the hall towards the monitor room when Justin follows.

"Now what was it you asked earlier when you was standin' outside my quarters waitin' for me, which-by the way- is rather disconcertin'."

"I asked if we would approach her this day."

"Approach who?"

"The new hero."

"If you 'ant to, partner," he answers stifling a yawn. "In my opinion, it's too early in tha mornin' fer any critter ta be up 'ceptin' those of us who've gotta take up the monitor duty fer this shift."

The two walk down the hall, casually chatting on in this manner, just as they do all the time. Anyone who sees them thinks them an odd pair of friends. A modern day cowboy and a sixth century knight of King Arthur's court certainly don't seem likely friends, but Sir Justin and Vig and been friends for a long time. Since back before the League when the Seven Soldiers of Victory were still a group. Somehow, they had seen past their differences, 'the creeping moral decay of the past thousand years' as Justin put it, and the 'right funny lookin' shiny, golden armor' as Vig put it. These differences overcome, they still remain the best of friends.

But if Sir Justin and Vig thought that they would be the only ones awake except themselves and the shift of monitor duty which they had to relieve, they were mistaken.

They find the new hero awake and staring out at one of the huge windows encircling the monitor room. She seems quite content to look out at the stars and the Earth spinning slowly on its axis far below them.

"I believe thou wast wrong, my friend," Sir Justin says to Vig as he catches sight of the hero. "It seems as though the new hero hast also risen early."

"Well, maybe she's one uh them thur early risers."

"Let us go speak to her before we take up our shift."

"Whate'er you say, partner. Le's go tawk at 'er."

The two walk towards her. Upon seeing their approach in the reflection on the glass, she quickly takes in every detail she possible can. She had seen both of them before. Almost a year ago today. She owed them everything. So many of her decisions during the past year were influenced by what she had witnessed that day.

As they get closer, she turns and smiles.

"Hello," she says brightly, greeting the two friends.

"Howdy!" greets the cowboy. "You're that thur new heruh, right? The one named… Mad Hatter?"

"Yes," she replies, waiting for the normal question that she had become accustom to following the first question, but he simply nods.

"Well, it's right nice ta have ya hur. My name's Vigilante, Vig fer short. And my friend hur," he says, jerking a thumb in the knight's direction, "that thur's Shinin' Knight, but we call 'im Knight fer short. He's a genu-ine knight from King Arthur's court."

Hatter watches Shining Knight straighten up to stand taller as he adds, " 'tis a pleasure to meet thee, Hatter. May I inquire as to how thee came about acquiring thine name?"

She smiles, "Only if at some point down the road, you'll tell me about some of your adventures in King Arthur's court, Sir Knight."

"Nay," he replies, smiling a somewhat dejected smile. "You'll not want to hear of those. No one does."

"Well, I do," she retorts assertively. "I've always loved reading the stories about King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, but you never know what's true and what's not. Besides," she smiles enthusiastically, "I think it would be much more interesting to hear from a real live knight."

"Thou truly dost wish to hear them?"he questions, surprised, yet cautiously optimistic.

"Of course. Why would I have asked you if I didn't?"

"Well—"

"Exactly."

"Well, I hate ta be a interuptin' ya'll's chat, but we really gotta be headed ta tha monitors. I reckon them bodies up there'll be wantin' some rest and are prob'ly right agitated at us fer not bein up thur already. But I figur' we'll be seein ya aroun' later, ma'am."

"Truly we must be on our way, but may we sit with thee at the lunch break if thou art there?"

"Fine with me. Well. See ya," she answers, waving as they walk off.

Alone once more, she stares out at the vastness of space, wondering what today might have in store for her.

* * *

**SO... Like it, love it, hate it, wanna set it on fire? Too bad.  
If you'd like to tell me about it though, that'd be awesome. lol.**

**Seriously though, hope everyone liked it. I'll try to update again soon.**

~Kanae~


	4. Chapter 4: Cup of Joe

**Okay. I know that I haven't updated in a little while with this story. Right now, my story New Blud has been beating up my brain around telling me to write about it.**  
**So needless to say, I have been. Unfortunately, this has kept some of my other stories from updating and some of my readers ready to throw me over a cliff. (Which won't solve anything because then the story CERTAINLY wouldn't get finished. **

**But here is one more short chapter that I thought might appease some of you. **

**Here goes...**

* * *

At 7:30 am, the alarm clock goes off, startling a very drowsy green archer. He gropes around blindly for the offending device before finally finding it and turning it off. After a moment of debate, he gets up- and after a nice, hot shower- he gets dressed and walks out of his room on the Watchtower to be scared out of his mind by a voice out of nowhere saying,

"Haven't talked to her yet, huhm?"

He spins around to see the faceless man. "Question! Quit doin' that. You know I'm not awake until I've had my cup of Joe."

"Should be alert ALL the time, Arrow."

"Yeah, well. Some of us aren't able to go six days without sleep."

"Will you answer the question?"

Green Arrow isn't quite sure whether Question is speaking in third person or if he actually means the noun 'question', but either way, it means the same thing.

He sighs. "No, Question. I haven't talked to the new kid yet."

"Why?"

"_Why_? First off, who names themselves after a super villain?"

"One who didn't know that there was one. And my research proves that the hero Mad Hatter was operating in Ireland long before the super villain Mad Hatter showed up here."

"Oh…" Arrow says, clearly not having been expecting that answer.

"The second reason?" Question prompts.

"I just got back from a mission last night."

"Alright," Question nods, before turning away. "Talk to her today," he adds walking off, leaving Arrow to stare after him and wonder what on Earth that was about.

* * *

**SO... **

**I haven't had much experience writing for Arrow, as you may be able to tell. I'm sorry if he seems a little OOC. It is entirely my fault.**  
**If you have suggestions for what you think he might say in place of something else, please PM me or put it in a review.**

**And if you do feel the need to correct my Green Arrow, it would be wonderful if you could give me some feedback while you're at it. It really would be appreciated.**  
**Tell me what you like so far. What you don't. Do you like the POV? Hate it? What do you think will happen? Do you like the pace the story is moving at?**

**Your feedback helps me as a writer. That is why I joined fanfic.**  
**If I wanted to write stories just to write stories, well...  
****That's what I have 6 storage boxes full of stories for. But the ones that I post are the ones I feel best express who I am as a writer.**  
**So I post them and ask you guys to give me feedback to help me learn. **

**I'm not going to be like some writers that annoy the absolute daylights out of me with this little note at the bottom of each chapter:**

**"no updatez untl i getz 20 reviews :D 3 thankies"**

**That is irksome and proves that they don't so much worry about the reviews but about the number they get. **  
**To me, reviews are not meant for competition. They are not meant to show off how 'awesome' I think I am to everyone else.**  
**They are to help me improve and better find out what my audience enjoys reading.**

**To ease some of you guy's fears, I am not going to stop writing because I'm 'not getting enough reviews'. **  
**The reviews are for my benefit and I'm not going to force you to write them for updates.**  
**You all are not dogs that need to get a treat for doing a good thing.**

**Now that I've had my little rant, I'll finish with this. If you want to favorite or story alert one of my stories, that's awesome, and it makes me feel great. I smile every time I get a message that says one of you has done that. It's a great confidence booster. But if you don't review I can't know what you guys like about my writing and what you don't. Please, please. Leave me a review so that I can keep writing what you guys like and avoid what you don't.**

**~Kanae~**


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